What sustainability data can you trust? 3 signs to look for

Reliable data is the basis of effective business decision-making. Yet enterprises invest billions to improve the flow, quality and accessibility of their financial operational data while treating the reliability of their sustainability data as an afterthought. 

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It’s not uncommon to find large complex businesses using untrustworthy sustainability datasets for sustainability reporting and decision-making. But trying to decarbonise your organisation’s activities using unreliable sustainability data is at best ineffective, at worst futile. 

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To devise an impactful decarbonisation strategy, you need high-trust data that is traceable, auditable and reference-able. To determine if your sustainability data is high-trust, ask yourself these three questions. 

Is your sustainability data traceable end-to-end?

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Gathering sustainability data is a unique challenge as it comes from a wide variety of sources, in a wide range of formats, and from every corner of your business. There is simply too much margin for error even if you have a mature, well-functioning system that optimises data quality at every step. It’s therefore essential that you can look under the hood and see what’s happening inside the engine. 

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Whether it’s an internal stakeholder looking to better understand a number or an external auditor trying to understand your carbon footprint calculations, it’s crucial you can show how every single number in your output was processed and calculated at every step. 

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What’s more, you must ensure that all the sustainability data you enter into your carbon accounting system remains unmodified, so you always have an immutable track record. For instance, you might revise your quarterly sustainability dataset later in the year as more accurate data arrives (see our article on Data Quality), but the revised footprint must not erase the initial footprint from the system. 

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Is your sustainability data audit-ready?

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How would you feel if KPMG audited your sustainability data tomorrow? To ensure your sustainability data is trustworthy, your sustainability data log should include all the appropriate details an external auditor needs to appraise your organisation. For example, it should be clear:

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• How the data flowed into the system - i.e. who submitted the data, where it came from and at what time? 
• How the verification process was completed - i.e. was the data checked for irregularities against the previous reporting period (or vs the previous year or national averages etc.), was it approved by a sustainability manager, did the sustainability manager leave any additional comments?
• How the emissions were calculated - i.e. which emissions factors were chosen and why, are the emissions calculations clearly-outlined, do the multiplications include all six of the different greenhouse gases (and which Global Warming Potential (GWP) set was used)?

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A comprehensive log not only gives an auditor a clear understanding of what’s happening, but also enables you to understand the limitations of your carbon accounting methodology and highlight areas to improve. It also builds defensibility of your overall carbon footprint as both your internal teams and external partners can rely on what you're publishing. To enhance the clarity of your sustainability data log and minimise the chance of human error, look to automate the data collection (i.e. meter readings) and verification processes (i.e. anomaly detection) where possible. 

Is your sustainability data stored in one place for trusted reference?

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High-trust sustainability data is not just about collection and verification, but also how your data is stored. Having sustainability data scattered across multiple locations undermines trust as it's not clear which data is the most up-to-date, which data was used for your carbon footprint or whether there’s been duplication. 

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Instead, use a single source of truth for all your sustainability data. Only 40% of organisations have a centralised depository for all their decarbonisation data, but by holding all sustainability data (from input through to output) in one place, you can easily access every element that makes-up your carbon footprint and ensure that everyone is reading from the same hymn sheet when they’re referring to sustainability data. 

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This single source of truth should also be the basis for all reports that are produced. Rather than see every compliance report as a separate objective, use systems that are able to simply produce all reports in one go. This guarantees consistency and massively reduces your reporting burden. 

High-trust = reporting & decarbonising with confidence

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If you can’t trust your sustainability data, you can’t trust your reporting or decarbonisation efforts. 

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However, with high-quality and high-trust sustainability data, you not only have faith in your current footprint, but have everything you need to make impactful interventions - be it meeting mandatory and voluntary reporting standards or helping your organisation move towards a lower carbon and more sustainable future. 

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When thinking about evolving your sustainability data capability, make sure your systems and processes deliver high-trust data. 

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